Online Computer Terms Dictionary - P

Portable Network Graphics

<file format> /ping/ (PNG) An extensible file format for the lossless,
portable, well-compressed storage of raster images. PNG provides a patent-free
replacement for GIF and can also replace many common uses of TIFF.
Indexed-colour, greyscale and truecolour images are supported, plus an optional
alpha channel. Sample depths range from 1 to 16 bits.

PNG is designed for on-line viewing applications, such as the World Wide Web, so
it is fully streamable with a progressive display option. PNG is robust,
providing both full file integrity checking and simple detection of common
transmission errors. Also, PNG can store gamma correction and chromaticity data
for improved colour matching on heterogeneous platforms.